watching the door at Kvarnen, who by this time knew who she was) would never
let her into the bar even though she was twenty-five. There was a whole army of
people who seemed not to have anything better to do than to try to disrupt her
life, and, if they were given the opportunity, to correct the way she had chosen to
live it.
It did no good to cry, she had learned that early on. She had also learned that every
time she tried to make someone aware of something in her life, the situation just
got worse. Consequently it was up to her to solve her problems by herself, using
whatever methods she deemed necessary. Something that Advokat Bjurman had
found out the hard way.
Blomkvist had the same tiresome habit as everyone else, poking around in her life
and asking questions. On the other hand, he did not react at all like most other men
she had met.
When she ignored his questions he simply shrugged and left her in peace.
Astounding.
Her immediate move, when she got hold of his iBook that first morning, had
naturally been to transfer all the information to her own computer. That way it was
OK if he dumped her from the case; she would still have access to the material.
She had expected a furious outburst when he appeared for his breakfast. Instead
he had looked almost resigned, muttered something sarcastic, and gone off to the
shower. Then he began discussing what she had read. A strange guy. She might
even be deluded into thinking that he trusted her.
That he knew about her propensities as a hacker was serious. Salander was aware
that the legal description of the kind of hacking she did, both professionally and as
a hobby, was “unlawful data trespassing” and could earn her two years in prison.
She did not want to be locked up. In her case a prison sentence would mean that
her computers would be taken from her, and with them the only occupation that
she was really good at. She had never told Armansky how she gathered the
information they were paying her to find.
With the exception of Plague and a few people on the Net who, like her, devoted
themselves to hacking on a professional level—and most of them knew her only as
“Wasp” and did not know who she was or where she lived—Kalle Blomkvist was the
only one who had stumbled on to her secret. He had come to her because she